Abstract:
Bob Orr grew up in Hendersonville and has been executive director of the Raleigh-based North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law since 2003. Before assuming this position, he graduated from UNC Law School, served eight years on the North Carolina Court of Appeals, and was in his second term on the North Carolina Supreme Court when he retired in 2003. Orr has strong feelings against economic incentives, an approach used by states and localities to attract businesses to their areas through tax breaks, money, and other inducements. Incentives allow corporations to play states against each other to receive extraordinary benefits. He hopes his institute will develop alternatives to this approach.